Schwarz writes, “It might be argued that he was purposefully ambiguous with his statements in order to illustrate the structural weaknesses of the cable television industry but I’m going to take him at his word and refute the following claims: No. 1. Jobs said that cable operators ‘give everybody a set-top box for free, or for $10 a month. That pretty much squashes any opportunity for innovation because nobody’s willing to buy a set-top box.'”
“Not true,” Schwarz writes. “People will pay for the right kind of set-top box.”
Schwarz writes, “No. 2. Jobs said that it’s difficult to partner with a cable company because ‘you run into another problem. Which is: there isn’t a cable operator that’s national…every single country has different standards, different government approvals, it’s very…Tower of Babelish.'”
“Steve is barking up the wrong tree,” Schwarz writes. “To bring innovation to the television industry you need to bypass the cable companies. The potential to become king of the living room is a once-per-generation opportunity and should be more than just a hobby for Apple.”
Schwarz writes, “No. 3. When discussing the obstacles of the cable TV industry, Jobs remarked, ‘I’m sure smarter people than us will figure this out, but that’s why we say Apple TV is a hobby, that’s why we use that phrase.’ Come on, Steve. I know a lot of what you said in that interview was tongue in cheek but there is no denying Apple is in the drivers seat to innovate the next big thing.”
Schwarz, “The time has come for Jobs to fully embrace new hardware that effectively leverages app use. If he can’t do it, maybe the master of business operations, COO Tim Cook is better suited to lead Apple into this new frontier. The opportunity to leverage the App Store is too massive.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Patience, oh breathless padawan. Relax. All will become clear in due time.
Jobs is right — most people will not buy a set-top box but rather settle for the one they get from the cable company, just because it’s such a hassle to figure out how to make a purchased set-top box work with your media provider (cable or dish). I thought about a TiVo, but just ended up going with the DVR that I could get from Comcast.
It’s the same sort of driving force behind the iPad — not everyone was going to buy a computer, because not everyone needs one…so Apple came up with the device that would appeal to those who didn’t want either a desktop or a laptop.
And I’m sure that Jobs is just holding his cards for the future of AppleTV and the digital hub close to his vest…no need to start warming up the copiers at Sony or Samsung this early.
I think there is both valid caution on Apple’s part, due to its lack of content muscle, but also classic Steve misdirection [think no video on iPod]. I am looking forward to the new ATV. A few weeks ago, a good friend told me not to buy a new ATV, because something was coming. If Engadget is right, I am excited by that device, but the news also prompted me to buy my third ATV and plop a bigger hard drive in it. I like the local storage component of ATV.
@WriterGuy
The objective of Trolls is to spread Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt; FUD if you will. Lacking anything else to use they are not trotting out the claim that Apple is getting out of the Mac business and that OS 10.7 will never see the light of day. There is no basis for this claim, it is just being said by idiots for the purpose of spreading FUD. My hunch is that they have been sucking at the teat of Steve Balmer and are embarrassed that Microsoft has not; indeed cannot come up with anything new and exciting and they are tortured by the fact that Apple is succeeding beyond all expectation. So, when you have nothing, nothing at all, you make something up. Hence, “Apple is getting out of the Mac business.” It not only shows them to be idiots, it reveals their insanity as well.
“All will become clear in due time.”
In regards to Apple TV? The time for “all” to “become clear” is LONG overdue if that’s the case. Steve is taking his sweet time while Google steals the rug out from under him.
The problem is this idiot doesn’t understand the problem, you can’t bypass the cable companies. Apple, Google or anyone would have to provide a better experience. That includes having all of the content that is available through your cable company. The success is dependent on getting all of the major networks on board. The best product is nothing without the content.
The only one I see babbling is Jason Schwarz in this article.
“a bit harsh” and “breeze” hit the key points quite well. If you read the full article, Schwarz is aware that content and speed of delivery are the keys – the most difficult one being content and royalty issues. Having gone through the iTunes headache internationally, Apple is well aware of the legal and logistical issues associated with the sale and distribution of music IP. As a result, Apple is uniquely positioned to understand the greater complexities associated with TV IP. The music companies were desperate in the late 1990’s and were willing to experiment with Apple’s iTunes approach. More recently, publishers have shown their willingness to adapt to a new way of marketing their wares. But the major players in the TV/video space are much more reluctant to relinquish control. It will take time for Apple to achieve a comparable breakthrough in the TV market.
the next apple tv will be in fact a TV set
The DVR I got from Time Warner had a FireWire port. The manufacturer listed the ability to daisy-chain additional FireWire hard drives to it was listed as a feature.
Time Warner DISABLED that feature!
Later, i called and asked if I could subscribe to HD ONLY service.
Again, NO was the answer. it wasn’t possible, they said.
Yes it is. All they need to is program their system to handle it.
THIS is the sort of tactic that Jobs speaks of in relation to cable companies. Until their little local monopolies are broken, we, the paying customers will be forced to comply… or cancel our cable service.
Me? I cancelled!
Just replace the words “TV” and “Set-Top Box” and “Cable Companies” in Jobs’ statements, and you’ll see where this is going:
1) Jobs said that cell phone companies ‘give everybody a phone for free, or for $10 a month. That pretty much squashes any opportunity for innovation because nobody’s willing to buy a premium phone.
2) Jobs said that it’s difficult to partner with a phone company because ‘you run into another problem. Which is: there isn’t a phone company that’s global…every single country has different standards, different government approvals, it’s very…Tower of Babelish.’
If anyone can’t read the smoke signals now, they just don’t know Steve’s history of development and misdirection. Remember, everything about phones, tablets, video on ipods, etc. etc. is always bad, not interesting to consumers, impossible, or unprofitable until Steve rolls out Apple’s version of it, then suddenly it’s great, once it’s done right. And he’ll keep telling you how bad, unprofitable, and uninteresting it is until the day before he tells you how great it is.
P.S. Mr. Schwarz, your arrogance is astounding. You are verbally calling out a gentleman who has led major revolutions in computing, mobile devices, and media distribution because he is not doing what *you* believe should happen immediately, if not sooner?
It is easy to articulate a wish list. It is an entirely different thing to implement an effective solution. That is why there is only one SJ and one Apple, while millions of JS’s pound furiously away at their keyboards declaring how things ought to be.
It seems to me that this guy has forgotten Steve Jobs’ repeated comments that no one wants to watch video on an iPod and that no one reads anymore.
A good company not only doesn’t leak from the top it also spews deliberate misleading B.S. from the top.
@Mike had a few questions:
“No. 2. How does one bypass cable companies when these cable companies are regional monopolies for TV and often internet service as well? I would like to see Schwarz propose how to bring forth one successful product that will both rely on a service providers and also undermine the service providers’ profits.”
The days of wires coming to your house to carry information are over. Cable and satellite are not primarily internet ISPs. WiMax technology (e.g. Clearwire’s ‘Clear’ wireless service) is faster than fiber, which is already obsolete before it is totally built out. ‘Clear’ does not offer TV. It is simply an internet ISP. Why do you think that the wire/satellite companies are deeply discounting bundled packages? Direct wireless connection would be an option for Apple. Apple could provide content wirelessly and bypass cable and satellite companies altogether. This may be what Jobs has in mind. A proprietary Apple wireless system would be expensive, but so are thousands of retail stores.
“No. 1. Does Schwarz have sales figures to back up his claim that Jobs is wrong? How much money does Tivo make per year? Answer: not much. Steve is correct.”
Tivo still requires a subscription. There is no stand alone solution out there for folks who get their content for free with an antenna. Most people don’t understand that broadcast TV is now all digital, virtually all HD, and typically of better quality and reliability than cable or satellite. The difference in usable content between non-premium cable and free broadcast TV is negligible. Cable may provide 500 channels, but only about 30 are watchable. I get 32 channels with my antenna and I’m 30 miles from the nearest transmitter.
“No. 3. Interesting phrase, but Apple is wise not to undermine the ISPs that feed it.”
Apple needs to kill both cable and satellite. Jobs won’t stand for them dictating how he operates. I expect him to do something radical to shed AT&T;soon as well.
and no doubt this goon will be full of self congratulation for predicting what is clearly developments in the pipeline. Even the timing isn’t difficult when you can guarantee that when SJ talks in such terms the next step is to solve the very problems he outlines. Of course to create this future you have to have the infrastructure like a massive media delivery set up and unlike a quick news story that takes time but of course that time is very nearly with us.
I’m sure that Jason came to these conclusions after months of talks with studios and cable companies all over the world. NOT.
It isn’t Steve Jobs that’s out of touch with a generation; it’s Jason who’s not in touch with an industry.
I think Apple TV is a way for Apple to get back into the clone market, the can license the Apple TV version of OS X to TV manufacturers so that every TV will have a nice Apple interface and usability built in. Then they will differentiate themselves in Build quality, Screen Quality and HD size. you can use your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad as a remote.
Jobs isn’t wrong. He just painted the picture of what is, how bad the problem is, so that others will waste their energy trying to solve it. In the meantime, Jobs is working on going back to square one (as he said). But he needs to build all the pieces so that content companies will be willing to bypass the cable companies. For example, have you heard of iAd?
Yeah, this is pretty self-aggrandizing. Jobs is “wrong” only in Shwarz’s *opinion*. Jobs wasn’t outlining the future of mobile broadband or computers or anything else. He was speaking in an informal way about his impressions of the market and what Apple has to do to stay ahead. The headline is just linkbaiting. And given Jobs success, no one with any brains should be second guessing Jobs right about now.
Jason Schwarz blind (or possibly terminally myopic) ….
No supposition… what are the facts, Jobs said that the problem was -simply- a go to market problem. And that any solution could not use the existing cable distribution because of no single point of coverage and a huge “tower of babel-ish ” array of non compatible standards.
But while there are literally hundreds of cable transmission & sat schema’s, there are a couple worldwide standards -TCP/IP- and only a handful of “video in” standards (plus just NTSC and PAL will get you 90 something percent of the western market)
Apple a company that is EXTREMELY frugal with R&D;and investments, has just invested in a 1 billion dollar data center that dwarfs even youtube’s capacity & backbone
Yes it would be a quantum leap, a complete rethink of the model, but isn’t that what Apple is famous for doing?
“Nobody wants to watch a movie on an iPod.”
Brilliant mis-direction again.
I like the idea of AppleTV paired with iTunes over a cable subscription. I never watch broadcast TV anymore anyway, so I don’t need to watch my TV shows live.
Zeke, I hope you’re right, but my optimism is limited.
According to the NCTA (http://www.ncta.com/Statistics.aspx), 62.1 million people order basic cable video service, and 42.6 million digital video subscribers. That’s 104.7 million cable subscribers. These cable operators also serve 41.8 million people with high speed internet, usually with no other high-speed ISP competition in their region.
Clearwire’s WiMax service is going up against Verizon and AT&T;’s LTE mobile broadband as well as T-Mobile’s HPSA. Each of these new wireless broadband services are highly fragmented, with Clearwire reporting only 642,000 retail and 46,000 wholesale subscribers in their 2009 annual report. They’ve got a long way to go before they challenge the big boys who already have regional monopolies and deep pockets. What’s more, Comcast is already using its cash to buy content creators (studios), too. No device manufacturer is likely to have success if they can’t come to a workable agreement with content creators.
What is this TV that is spoken about here?
Clearwire is owned by McCaw, the guy who originally built and sold what became AT&T;Wireless. He’s never intended to be in the ISP business. He builds systems and sells them. So far, ‘Clear’ is only available in what is called “second tier” cities, and that is by design. Places like Portland, Oregon are test labs where scalability problems are being worked out before ‘Clear’ goes into places like Los Angeles and New York, where AT&T;has seen difficulties.
Ubiquitous mobile gigabit service will blow away the abusive monopolies created by copper wire and government franchises. Apple is simply waiting for the right time to disrupt this market, just as they did with mobile music and smart phones. When did SJ ever think small?
“…given Apple’s talent pool and their market power, they should be able to steer the industry toward a better solution.”
Given that this is the entertainment industry we’re talking about, Jobs and crew would be better off trying to herd cats.